So I go into the Lodge and find the fish thawing. Between 10am and noon the fish for deep frying are removed from the freezer and placed on pans and covered with plastic wrap. The pans are then placed in a rack and left in the kitchen.

This is where the fish stay till the 5PM fry. The fry lasts till 7PM. Note the 'old fish' sign. This is the previous weeks left over fish which were placed in a tub between wax paper and refrozen then placed back on the rack to rethaw along with the new fish.

This is how they thaw the fish to be baked:

In stead of being placed on the rack the frozen fish are placed in a pan, covered with plastic and allowed to 'thaw' till 4pm at which time they are prepared.

The health inspector caught them thawing fish this way and told them to thaw the fish in the walk in cooler. This was tried once by placing the still boxed fish in the walk in on a Thursday. The fish didn't thaw in time so they went right back to placing it on a rack in the kitchen Friday morning.

Their reasoning is cooking kills the bacteria.

I could tell you how one officer made a breading of hot spices then, after sifting out the chunks, wrapped up the left over breading and put it in the cooler for use the next week. It got tossed.

I'm not kidding about the old fish, they don't see anything really wrong with thawing it in a room at moderate temperature, refreezing it, and rethawing it the next week.

Despite the glaring food safety issues presented here, I cannot fathom what frozen processed fish, thawed, then refrozen, then thawed, labeled "old," then (probably reeking of ammonia) fried would taste like or what the disintegrating texture would actually be like.

People really eat this (excuse me) crap without complaint?

I do have to say that the "OLD FISH" sign is hilarious, given the situation.

You should call the health department immediately and have something done about this. It's unconscionable.

__________________Less is not more. More is more and more is fabulous.

I also vote for calling the health department. What's going to happen is a bunch of people are going to end up in the ER and then there will be some 'splainin to DO!!!!!! That is NOT ok!!!!! And the reason their fish didn't thaw is because they left it in a big frozen chunk - what a bunch of morons!

Yep, you need to call the Health Department for sure. It's just not safe.

That is pretty shoddy. I'll add another vote for dobbing them in. It sounds like you've done your best to get them to fix it... if they're not going to change as a result of your best efforts, you need to take it up a level.

I know it must be hard for you, being very involved with the place. I honestly think it's the best thing to do, though. It's just a disaster waiting to happen otherwise.

I always had heard that it was a no-no to refreeze fish........so I don't understand how this "method of madness" could not but affect the flavor and texture even if deep-fried not to mention incubating harmful bacteria

__________________
The only difference between a "cook" and a "Chef" is who cleans up the kitchen.

add me to the chorus of dittos - if they're not going to stop doing horrible things after a rational talking to, turning them in to the health dept will prevent some poor people from getting horribly ill.

cooking at high temperatures does indeed kill routine bacteria...IF the WHOLE piece (including the core, not touching the frying grease!) gets to kill temperatures. but it DOESN'T kill off the spore-forming bacteria (like all the clostridium organisms), and it doesn't do anything about all the toxins (the bacterial waste products) that are now present in the room-temperature food.